The land of Equestria is not ruled by a king or queen, but by a pair of beautiful Princesses. Celestia, the elder, is responsible for raising the Sun at dawn, and the younger Luna is responsible for bringing out the moon at dusk. Together, they rule the land in harmony for all the different types of ponies.

Celestia also has a niece with the title of "Princess" named Mi Amore Cadenza, who prefers to be called Cadance. Her special talent is inducing romantic love between ponies, though she is quite young and doesn't seem to be as powerful as the ruling sisters.

"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together, and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies."

All Your Powers Combined: Though trading cardslist the sisters and Cadance as being pegasi and unicorns but not Earth ponies, the later Tie-In NovelTwilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell establishes that an Alicorn is "a special breed of pony able to harness the magical powers of the Unicorns, the flight abilities of the Pegasi, and the strength of a good, true heart of an Earth Pony." Word of God also says that Celestia "embodies the traits of all three" [kinds of ponies], and the second◊series◊ of character cards lists the alicorn princesses as each of the three races (as an "intentional improvement" over the first series).

Authority Equals Asskicking: Compared to Celestia, Luna shows off her powers a lot more, and from what we see they appear to be impressive even outside of her Nightmare Moon incarnation. Control of weather with lightning galore seems to be one of her favorite tricks, but she also displays various other powers, such as turning toy spiders into actual huge spiders. However, it appears that Celestia is not one to be underestimated either: she is able to instantly revert all the effects caused by Twilight Sparkle's burst of wild magic, to dispel the Want It Need It spell from the entire population of Ponyville, and face off against Queen Chrysalis, not even getting into wielding the Elements of Harmony against Nightmare Moon on her own. According to Fiendship Is Magicshe once defeated Chrysalis and her Changelings and sealed them in a volcanoby herself.

Badass: Not only were they able to harness the greatest magic known to ponydom before the Mane Six, they used it to defeat Discord.

Bodyguarding a Badass: They both have their own guards despite possibly being the most powerful beings in the world. They seem to be there partly because it's traditional, and partly to handle to small stuff (they appear to be practically useless against real threats).

Cain and Abel: Princess Luna and Celestia form a rather complicated example. Luna got corrupted by an outside influence and when that was gone Celestia immediately offered to return her to power.

Cool Car: Rather a cool carriage. It isn't as if they need them, but Celestia and Luna use their own Pegasus-drawn carriages when they need to fly to certain parts of Equestria. Each sister has a theme for their own: while Celestia's royal carriage is very beautiful and graceful, Luna's carriage looks like a funeral carriage, full of spikes and chains and pulled by two really sinister-looking Pegasi. note Luna's sinister carriage must have been designed that way Just for Pun, since another name for a funeral carriage is "Hearse", which means that Luna (a winged unicorn) is a Flying Horse on a Flying Hearse.

Creation Myth: Told at the beginning of episode one and expanded on with them defeating Discord in the past.

Deus Exit Machina: While the full extent of their power isn't clear, the princesses are obviously the most powerful good guys in the setting, both physically and politically. Yet whenever a serious threat rears its head, they never help out as much you'd think they could. They're usually given some sort of excuse for this, though not always.note Luna is especially guilty of this, due to her extended disappearing act in the early seasons. She's nowhere to be seen during Discord's first appearance and it's implied that she slept through the Changeling Invasion.

Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Celestia and Luna defeated Discord in ancient times with the Elements of Harmony, despite him being much stronger than them even then.

The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: "Slice of Life" reveals that they have their arguments just like any other siblings, though they make sure to hide it from the rest of the world.

God Empress: They both control a cosmic force and are only exceeded in power by Discord and a The Power of Love-supercharged Queen Chrysalis.

A God I Am Not: As powerful and royal as they may be, they'd both much rather relate to their subjects on a personal level and forgo protocol.

Heroes Of Another Story: Celestia and Luna had their own adventures and tribulations prior to and shortly after becoming the rulers of Equestria, which we have only seen brief glimpses of. They confront Discord covered in scrapes and bruises, but it's never shown how they got them.

Magic Hair: Both sisters have a mane and tail that sparkles and has an ethereal glow about it, and drifts about as if unaffected by gravity. The Season 4 Finale, "Twilight's Kingdom", reveals that their manes and tails drift and sparkle due to their magic. When they transfer it to Twilight, their manes and tails stop doing this and become still until their magic is recovered, restoring them to normal.

Pay Evil unto Evil: The Princesses are forgiving souls, but if you're truly evil, they will make you sorry. This is best shown with Scorpan and his brother Tirek. Scorpan turned good and warned them of his and his brother's plans, and was not only spared but the sisters still speak kindly of him. Tirek didn't, and the sisters sent him to Tartarus.

Personality Powers: Inverted by both sisters. Celestia, who controls the sun, has a calm, sensible personality. Luna, who controls the moon, has a bombastic, intimidating personality.

Precursor Heroes: They were the wielders of the Elements of Harmony before the mane cast over one thousand years ago. As shown in flashback in "Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 2", Celestia had Magic, Kindness and Generosity while Luna held Loyalty, Honesty and Laughter.

The Philosopher King: Attaining the alicorn form in Equestria apparently requires mastery of magic through intense study.

Physical Goddess: Often seen as this by the fandom. A bit less clear in-universe. Celestia and Luna have control over the sun and moon respectively note and, for a time, Celestia had control of both. They are each over 1000 years old at least. Common ponies swear by Celestia's name ("As Celestia is my witness"... with Celestia herself nowhere in sight) and appear intensely reverent of her. Luna summons dark stormclouds and lightning seemingly with her mood alone. Finally, the combined power of the four princesses appears equal to that of nearly every other pony in Equestria, plus Discordnote assuming both Tirek and Twilight were making equally good use of their procured powers. On the other hand, they are far from omniscient, can be physically hurt by sufficiently empowered foes, and Twilight, at least, believes that Celestia is mortal. In a land of magical ponies who outright control nature, the princesses' abilities aren't categorically different from their subjects', just greater in magnitude. Lauren Faust does not consider them gods. The Journal of the Two Sisters reveals it took the eleven strongest unicorn mages to raise the sun and moon beforehand, with such strain they would permanently lose their powers, providing the most direct comparison. Overall, they seem to be of the "like a normal pony, but bigger and more powerful"-variety, which does qualify them for a certain tier of physical godhood in this wiki.

Red Oni, Blue Oni: Contrary to what was popular belief before "Luna Eclipsed", Luna is the Red while Celestia's the Blue. Celestia is unfailingly polite, rarely raising her voice or breaking protocol in public, compared to her more bombastic sister who once attended a Summer Wrap-up festival and took part in all of the competitions, including pie eating.

Retired Badass: Both of them. Back when they could use the Elements of Harmony, they saved Equestria together at least twice from Discord and Tirek (and stopped King Sombra) and then Celestia had to save it from Luna/Nightmare Moon. Celestia is still pretty Badass, but she lets Twilight and the rest of the Mane Cast do the world saving now. At least unless a threat to Equestria uncloaks right in front of her. The IDW Comic implies they still protect Equestria from major threats as well from time to time.

Royals Who Actually Do Something: Celestia is in charge of bringing forth daytime while Luna brings forth the night. Besides attending her royal duties, Celestia regularly visits her people and goes to their aid whenever the need arises (such as a Parasprite infestation in Fillydelphia, or a frozen cloud falling on a stadium full of her citizens). She has also been raising and lowering both the freaking Sun and the Moon on a daily basis for a millennium after Luna's banishment. "Sleepless in Ponyville" reveals part of Luna's duty is to patrol the dream world and help her subjects conquer their nightmares. She also is seen doing like Celestia in protecting her citizens when the need arises (such as a falling ice cloud on a stadium full of innocent citizens).

Super Strength: Only implicit in the show (due to the princesses having Earth Pony magic), but shown in the comics. In "Zen and the Art of Gazebo Repair" Luna participates in several sports competitions, easily acing them all. There's also a panel showing Celestia arm-wrestling Big Macintosh, one of the established strongest ponies in the show. She doesn't even break a sweat, while Big Mac is visibly exerting himself but unable to move her hoof.

The Usurper: The Season 2 premiere reveals that Celestia and Luna stole the throne from Discord and appointed themselves as the new rulers of Equestria after trapping him in stone. Of course, this was a good change, as Discord's reign was a never-ending nightmare of chaos and suffering, which was the reason they rose up against him in the first place. The Journal of the Two Sisters reveals that they were the original rulers of Equestria, meaning Discord usurped them first. They were just taking back their kingdom and (more importantly) saving the ponies from the whims of a JerkassReality Warper.

Too Important to Walk: Or rather fly. Though she's able to fly on her own she always travels in a carriage pelled by two Pegasus guards. It's likely princess protocol.

Winged Unicorn: The four princesses are notably the only Winged Unicorns to appear in the flesh on the show (animation errors aside). What being a Winged Unicorn actually means in this setting is somewhat of a mystery, which, coupled with their extreme rarity, fuels a lot of speculation for fans.

Worf Had the Flu: Celestia and Luna are captured in the season four opener, but this worfing is clearly justified due to the fact the vines were able to mess with magic, and their planter fully intended for them to be captured. It happens again in the season four finale, when Celestia, Luna and Cadance transfer their magic to Twilight for protection, due to the new villain being able to drain a pony's magic, and the Princesses' magic is the strongest in Equestria.

Yin-Yang Bomb: Are seen crossing their horns and blasting King Sombra with their combined magic to defeat him a thousand years ago.

You Don't Look Like You: Infamously, Celestia's earlier toys were extremely pink, though this was later fixed (most likely to avoid confusion with Princess Cadance, who actually is pink). Luna's toys and collector cards give her a coat closer to Twilight Sparkle's shade of purple and a mane and tail of Multicolored Hair. Luna's Design-A-Pony toy depicts her as a Palette Swap of Cadance (while Cadance herself doesn't have a Design-A-Pony toy). Additionally, Luna's original Playful Ponies-class (the standard-size ponies) toys were simply standard unicorn heads on a standard pegasus bodies (this flaw still applies to the Fashion Style versions of her and Celestia & Cadance). Fortunately, thanks to Cadance (who shares a lot of her design) getting her own Playful Ponies-class mold made, Luna now has new toys at that size which are the correct shape and closer to the correct colours.

Princess Celestia

Don't ask us how she brushes that mane.

"I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart."

Ruler of Equestria. According to the Creation Myth, she governs both the sun and the moon, though she originally commanded "merely" the former and only assumed control of the latter after a disagreement with her sister pony-goddess. However since said sister's return, she has passed the reigns of the moon back to Luna. A white winged unicorn with a multicolored, ethereal mane, she is noticeably taller and more slender than her subjects.

Adorkable: In the flashback sequences of the "Reflections" comic arc; upon meeting the Mirror World King Sombra, Celestia becomes completely tongue tied by his good looks, then later reflexively spits coffee in his face when he calls her a "rare gem."

Badass: In the Season 2 finale, y'know how Chrysalis was both a changeling equivalent to the princess, AND powered by all the love in Canterlot? In the ensuing Beam-O-WarChrysalis cringed in preparation of being fried. She was as surprised as anypony that she won. On the other hoof, Celestia and her sister Luna still put their Badass sides to better use when dealing with Discord and King Sombra. In Fiendship Is Magic, we learn that last time she fought Chrysalis hundreds of years ago, the battle ended with Chrysalis and her entire army defeated and sealed in a volcano.

Threatening her domain and causing trouble for her subjects do not please her.

The misuse of magic really makes her mad, such as the incidents with Discord or Twilight Sparkle in "Lesson Zero".

Beware the Nice Ones: She is a kind, gentle and benevolent lady who put down two gods and a unicorn tyrant. She also essentially sent Tirek to Hell. She may be a kindhearted, forgiving sort, but she has very little mercy upon the truly evil.

Big Eater: "Ponyville Confidential" caught her indulging on mountains of cake. Possibly justified in that she is over twice the size of most of her subjects.

Big Good: She is ruler over the whole setting, Twilight's mentor, the one who more often than not tells the mane six they need to save Equestria and easily the most intelligent character on the show — and armed with the massive power that comes with being a Physical Goddess, to boot. The major villains see her as their chief opponent, and she's always the one to send out the heroes against them.

Broken Ace: She's powerful and beloved by all of the ponies she cares for in the kingdom, but her inability to constantly protect them, as in the cases with Discord and Queen Chrysalis, as well as being unable to save the Crystal Ponies weighs down on her heart. In the Season 4 finale, she also knows she will be unable to protect them once she transfers her magic to Twilight with Luna and Cadance before being captured by the villain, who then turns his attention to getting all their magic from Twilight, including hers.

Casting a Shadow: Celestia is capable of using King Sombra's dark magic to this effect. Dark Is Not Evil because she does it as a demonstration for Twilight before sending her to stop him.

When addressing multiple ponies at the same time, she usually refers to them as "My Little Ponies" note Justified, perhaps, since she's one of few full-size horses in the series. Note that "My little ponies" seems to be a pretty common way in Equestria for adult mares/stallions to address younger fillies/colts.

Characterization Marches On: Beginning with Season 2, the show has depicted a more serious and strict side of Celestia, contrasting with her ever calm and relaxed personality from Season 1. She can be fallible, have moments of vulnerability, be overwhelmed by her opponents, feel fear, get upset, and even be angered. And you do not want to anger Celestia.

The Chessmaster: She used her god-like power to defeats her enemies in the backstory. In the main narrative she wins through clever planning. Thepilot, the first season finale, and the two-partSeason 2 opening provide examples. The show can leave you wondering if Celestia is in fact a Chessmaster or is simply an amazing Gambit Roulette player. This dissonance is mainly due to the exact workings of her prescience being left intentionally vague.

Lauren Faust: I never wanted to define her [precognitive] abilities, even to myself. I wanted her to be mysterious and hard to understand on purpose. There are things she knows, things she has a mere sense for and things she can't see at all.

Color-Coded Wizardry: As of Season 2, her horn and objects affected by her magic have a bright yellow glow.

Cool Big Sis: It's obvious Celestia adores Luna after she gets reverted from being Nightmare Moon, and Part 1 of "The Return of Harmony" confirms they were good friends before that (sharing the Elements of Harmony). In the Season 4 premiere, a flashback shows them doing just that: sharing the Elements of Harmony, to defeat Discord together.

Cool Pet: Her sickly pet bird Philomena, who is actually a Phoenix near her rebirth phase and a prankster too appropriately enough, given the later entry.

Cool Teacher: To Twilight Sparkle. Her idea of the "best night ever" is talking with Celestia all night.

Damsel in Distress: Despite being a Physical Goddess, in the course of the series she's been captured four times: by Nightmare Moon (maybe), Queen Chrysalis, the Plunder Vines (along with Luna) and Tirek (along with Luna and Cadance).

Since Twilight's transformation at the end of season 3 and the show's Re Tool of the aesops being recorded in journals rather than being sent to her in letters, Celestia's presence on the show has notably been reduced. She only showed up in the fourth season premiere, the penultimate episode, "Equestria Games", and the fourth season finale.

Her first appearance in Season 5 has her placed as a secondary character since it focused more on her former arch-enemy than the ponies.

Depending on the Artist: Celestia's coat looks white, but is actually a very light fuchsia-grey. Her human counterpart in Equestria Girls has light pink skin, her depiction in the comics has a light lavender coat, Twilight's storybook in the first episode depicts her as pink, and her toys range from white to vibrant pink.

Dispel Magic: Her most common use of her powers early on was to neutralize out-of-control magic, like with young Twilight Sparkle's wild surge in the flashback of "The Cutie Marks Chronicles", or her "Want-It Need-It" spell in "Lesson Zero".

Disproportionate Retribution: Completely averted by what we've seen but some of her subjects (Twilight in particular, who should really know her better) seem to fear she will engage in this for minor infractions like looking after her pet without permission or missing a school assignment. Given the positive reception her subjects have toward her, it's possible that her subjects are more worried about disappointing or upsetting her than they are being punished by her. While she has dished out horrible punishments, it never falls into this as Discord, King Sombra, and Tirek were all absolute monsters who deserved them.

Dreaming of Things to Come: The season four finale revealed that Celestia can have clairvoyant visions in her sleep. The one seen was of the present, so it's unknown if she can see the future or the past, but she can't seem to have them on purpose or guide them. This ability may explain some of the seemingly illogical choices and plans she has made over the course of the series, her visions telling her what to do in a way that will make things work out best, even if she appears to be sabotaging herself.

Ermine Cape Effect: While not to the tacky extreme seen in other girl shows, she is constantly dressed in impeccable finery and a tiara every time she appears. There's also her rainbow-colored gravity-defying hair. For Twilight's coronation ceremony in "Magical Mystery Cure", we see her in full regalia for the first time, including an ermine-trimmed crown instead of her usual tiara.

She was unable to save the Crystal Ponies from Sombra's final curse, she failed to prevent her younger sister Princess Luna from being corrupted and turning into Nightmare Moon, which haunted her for over 1000 years. Then Discord comes back and leaves her powerless to stop him from terrorizing the kingdom. Next, Queen Chrysalis successfully infiltrates her niece Cadance's wedding and defeats her in direct combat. And after that, she and Luna are both seized by the wild vines growing out of the Everfree Forest and imprisoned until Twilight and company save them. It happens again when the escaped prisoner from Tartarus imprisons her, Luna, and Cadance, before going after Twilight and her friends and getting bested in combat and thus freeing them once more.

The whole storyline of the Reflections comic-arc was caused by Celestia's acts of youthful impulse finally catching up to her.

The Gadfly: Not for nothing is "Trollestia" a meme. Since most ponies are completely in awe of her, she often has to resort to good-natured teasing to get them to lighten up. She considers the Grand Galloping Gala to be dreadfully dull, and is highly amused when Twilight, and later Discord, end up ruining the festivities.

Guile Hero: She's more than willing to resort to sneaky plans to lead the heroes to victory. She masterminded Discord's defeat simply by sending Twilight Sparkle all of the friendship letters she'd sent the entire first season.

She comes across mostly as a formal and regal High Queen, and it comes across stronger to her subjects. Now observe her mischievous side, such as inviting the Mane Six and later Discord to the Grand Galloping Gala to liven up the night.

The Reflections story line in the comic shows that once upon a time, Celestia was just as inexperienced in matters of her duties as Twilight, as well as having the same emotional needs of any other young mare.

The High Queen: Most everypony around her treats her like this, but it's implied she'd prefer a more relaxed approach.

Hot Goddess: She is drawn more aesthetically... more clean, shiny, "beautiful", and pretty... compared to the rest of the cast. It's implied that she is (or fits) the ideal for equine beauty in Equestria; for example, the beauty parlor in Ponyville has a picture of a pony with her tall and slender proportions.

Interspecies Adoption: Lauren Faust at one point stated that it was Celestia that adopted and raised Spike (who is a dragon, no less) after he hatched from his egg. If the way he turned out is any indication, Celestia seemed to know what she was doing in rearing him.

It's Personal: While we don't learn exactly what he did, it's clear from how she reacts to Discord that she hates him with a passion.

Lonely at the Top: She suffers a small degree of this, though it may have been cured after her reunion with her sister.

Made of Iron: Took a direct hit from Nightmare Moon's energy beam (and the great fall to the ground that came after), and while it certainly hurt her and knocked her out briefly, she appeared to have no major injury from it. This same energy beam was blasting her castle apart like it was made of paper.

Mama Bear: Though this extends to all her subjects, with Twilight, Cadance, and Luna especially, do not mess with them or you will know her wrath.

Metaphorically True: Celestia tends to use half-truths whenever she's planning something. None of what she says is untrue, but she lies by omission pretty often.

Modest Royalty: She is very social and prefers livelier, more personal get-togethers over extravagant soirees. It turns out this is one of the major reasons she invites Twilight and her friends to the Grand Galloping Gala. She hates how dull the event usually is since she effectively spends the whole Gala welcoming guests and doesn't get to enjoy it, and she's hoping the girls will liven things up a bit. Theydo. It happens again in Season 5 when she invites her former arch-enemy, Discord, to the Gala to liven things up like the Mane Six did previously. While secretly enjoying the chaos and mischief Discord and the Smooze cause, she physically acts like she is just as annoyed and discomforted by their actions as everypony else is, especially since she is always with Twilight when things went crazy. At the end of it all, she reveals the truth to Twilight, leaving Twilight completely baffled.

My Greatest Failure: That Celestia has so many of these is to show us that despite being the pony equivalent of a goddess, she's just as fallible as anypony — and that no one knows this better than she does.

Despite putting a stop to his evil, she seems to feel very guilty about being unable to protect the Crystal Ponies from King Sombra's last curse.

It tore her up when she had to exile her sister to the moon, and the plot of the pilot is to remedy this.

She also feels guilty about not realizing the seal keeping Discord imprisoned has been broken until it's too late.

She also is upset when she is defeated by Queen Chrysalis in their beam collision. She was also probably upset that she didn't realize Chrysalis had disguised herself as Cadance, which resulted in her defeat (had she realized it earlier, Chrysalis wouldn't have absorbed enough love from Shining Armor in order to defeat her).

Equestria Girls adds Sunset Shimmer, a pony she took under her wing not long before Twilight Sparkle that became cruel and dishonest despite her best efforts, to the list. Sunset's eventual fall from grace reminded Celestia of her forced banishment of Nightmare Moon, and she kept the mirror that Sunset escaped into as a reminder and in hopes of her wayward student's possible return.

The Reflections arc in the comics reveals that all of these failures have taken a heavy toll on her, and adds yet another: her falling out with Starswirl the Bearded and her use of the alternate world and Mirror!Sombra to help alleviate her mountains of grief. It also shows that she is afraid of everypony, especially Twilight and Luna, finding out about her mistakes. Luna is able to snap her out of it by telling her its nice to know she isn't actually perfect.

No-Nonsense Nemesis: Her reaction to Discord's escape. She calls the Mane Cast in and outright tells them to use the Elements Of Harmony to take Discord out ASAP. Unfortunately, Discord is moreGenre Savvy, but she earns points for trying. Justified as she was there the last time he was free and knows just how dangerous he really is.

The Obi-Wan: She is the age-old mentor who helps Twilight get started on her trip to Ponyville.

One-Hour Work Week: Averted. In the majority of her appearances, she is shown to be at work, giving work, going to work, or being called immediately to work either directly to the government or trying to keep the realm happy and safe.

Her behavior in the Season 2 premiere is at odds with her normally relaxed manner in the first season, which serves to underline how serious a threat Discord is. To compare, when dealing with Nightmare Moon, she lets Twilight stumble upon the answer. Here, she calls the Mane Six and straight up tells them to take Discord out.

Also, the Season 2 premiere is the first time when Celestia is shown to be vulnerable and fallible: She is unable to wield the power of the Elements of Harmony, Discord outsmarts her by stealing the Elements out from under her nose, and rather than resort to an alternate plan, Celestia's only reaction is to jaw-drop and stand there with an Oh Crap! expression on her face. Yes; Discord is that much of a menace.

"Lesson Zero" also showed us the first time Celestia gets visibly upset at Twilight's irresponsible use of magic; the Oh Crap! look on Twilight and her friends was worth a thousand words.

In "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1", she's obviously pissed at Twilight after the latter confronts the fake Cadance at the wedding rehearsal. In Part 2, she goes straight-up Lady of War on the revealed Queen Chrysalis... right before getting worfed.

The Prankster: Ascended Fanon: "A Bird in the Hoof", "The Best Night Ever", and "Make New Friends But Keep Discord" shows her engaging in lighthearted mischief at her subjects' expense, and "Castle Mane-ia" reveals that she filled her old castle with booby-traps for the sole purpose of pranking Luna.

Downplayed in-show, as she has pink in her Multicolored Hair and has pink outlines but is mostly white. However, most toys based off her were Enforced into becoming this, as toy retailers would only sell it in pink despite the fact that she's shown as white on the box (and in the commercials).

Played straight in the episode "Magical Mystery Cure", where she wears a pink Pimped-Out Dress during Twilight Sparkle's coronation ceremony.

In Season 5's "Make New Friends but Keep Discord," she wears a pink, Roman-like dress for the Grand Galloping Gala, instead of just her tiara, horseshoes, and collar like back in Season 1's "The Best Night Ever."

Reasonable Authority Figure: She's willing to listen to her subjects and is generally understanding and forgiving... unless you're irredeemably evil.

Renowned Selective Mentor: Is this for Twilight Sparkle. She was also this for Sunset Shimmer, but Sunset wasted the opportunity.

Requisite Royal Regalia: Not really necessary, but she is always adorned with a golden tiara, a golden necklace, and golden shoes.

Silk Hiding Steel: Celestia generally desires a less formal relationship with her subjects and has a rather puckish sense of humor, but she clearly is a mare of great elegance and refinement. At the same time, when the chips are down, the steel comes out. Her overall character design reinforces this — undeniably feminine and motherly, but also emphasizing her sheer size and strength when compared to her subjects.

For example, when she orders the Mane Six to do away with Discord.

She goes horn-to-horn with Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings in order to keep her kingdom safe. And once before actually did defeat Chrysalis. And her entire army, sealing them in a volcano for hundreds of years and leaving them with their holes.

While a downplayed example, Celestia has twice shown to be able to easily undo the damage caused by Twilight's magic in "Lesson Zero" and "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", showing that her own magic power remains superior to that of most (if not all) unicorns or alicorns.

We find out later that she and Luna condemned King Sombra to a Fate Worse Than Death for his horrific crimes against his subjects, albeit sometime before Luna became Nightmare Moon.

Sink-or-Swim Mentor: Issue #3 of Friends Forever reveals that this is the reason for her oft-mocked lack of help for the Mane Six even in the direst circumstances; she's fully capable of solving those problems herself, but this would only stunt the personal development of anypony she helped, who would simply rely on her to step in every time a problem came up. By the end of the issue, she also shows she will step in when the situation is truly hopeless for anypony but her.

Socialite: Averted. She prefers more casual reunions and is so bored by the biggest and most important social event in the country that she is ecstatic when the core group trashes her ball room because it livens things up. She prefers the casual reunion in the small donut shop with her student and friends.

Comes up again when the biggest and most important social event in the country happens again, and she decides to invite Discord purely because his mere presence guarantees something crazy will happen to liven things up, while she still acts like his efforts ruined the event for her, the Mane Six, the Crusaders, and everypony else. At least until she spills the truth to Twilight with how she really felt about his attendance.

So Proud of You: Her reaction when Twilight finishes Star Swirl the Bearded's last spell, and becomes a princess.

Standard Royal Court: Or more standard-ish than the rest of the incarnations. So far, there have been nobles, guards, a few royal positions, and the Mayor as a model of government.

Stepford Smiler: In the first part of the "Princess Twilight" season four opener, she admits to Twilight that for a thousand years, the Summer Sun Celebration was a bitter reminder of the fact that she'd been forced to banish her own sister, and that she'd simply been putting on a happy face for her subjects during the event. Averted now though, as Luna has returned.

In "Lesson Zero", she gives Twilight an extremely stern look and an equally stern order for Twilight to "meet her in the library". Absolutely justifiable considering the chaos Twilight caused and the fact that Celestia had to fix it.

She does it again in "A Canterlot Wedding" after Twilight calls out Cadance for being "evil". Unfortunately, this time Twilight was right, sort of: Cadance isn't evil, her imposter is. Regardless, it still counts that Twilight was right.

Stop Worshipping Me: In many of her appearances, she's shown to be quite uncomfortable with all the genuflection and adoration (or fear) her subjects display. This could also explain why she takes so much interest in Twilight's lessons and letters and why she enjoys the meetings between her and the core cast so much.

Story-Breaker Power: The main reason why she rarely gets screen time, especially in later seasons. It would be all too easy to solve daily problems with her vast powers (magical or otherwise). So most of the time, she isn't involved with the current conflict, and when she is, she's usually put out of commission quickly, leaving Twilight and her friends to save the day.

Sweet Tooth: "Ponyville Confidential" and "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" both imply she has a weakness for pastries.

Team Mom: To Twilight and her friends; being their goddess, they're in awe of her.

Teleporters and Transporters: "Lesson Zero" revealed that Celestia can teleport at will... possibly over a far greater distance than Twilight can. She implicitly came directly from her castle, a distance Twilight is shown to match only under extreme emergency, and that only once so far. This can explain why she literally appeared out from nowhere during Season 1 to deliver her advice to Twilight and friends.

This Means War!: The actions of Discord upon his return angered her. Until that moment, nobody knew she could get angry. Her explanation of what happened over 1000 years ago and what we see Discord do in the present imply she has very good reason to hate him.

Trademark Favorite Food: Judging by the episodes "Ponyville Confidential" and "MMMystery on the Friendship Express", her favorite food is implied to be cake.

Trickster Mentor: She occasionally "manipulates" Twilight Sparkle in order to teach her a valuable lesson or encourage her to do something exceptional. Usually. See below for when it's for personal reasons. This results in some fans nicknaming her "Trollestia".

Unmoving Plaid: The colors of her mane and tail wave... just not in the same way that the mane and tail themselves move. It might have something to do with her being a Physical God.

What the Hell, Hero?: Gets three of these during the Reflections comic-arc first from Star Swirl during the flashback for using the dimensional mirror behind his back despite the dangers of doing so, and then two from Luna in the present; first about disappearing without telling anypony and then when she found out Celestia tried to alleviate her loneliness following Luna's banishment with one from an alternate universe.

A far more benign example, but Celestia shows a great desire to be in a closer and more personal relationship with her subjects instead of the adoration, noble politeness, praise, and nervousness she causes wherever she goes, and she holds extremely dear her informal relationship with her star student.

We also see signs of this in her disdain for the Grand Galloping Gala, though given that she seems to spend much of it greeting the numerous guests, it's not hard to imagine why she says that it's always awful. She also loathed the Summer Sun Festival because it served as an annual reminder of having to seal her sister away. She loathes it no longer now that Luna is back.

The Changeling Queen defeats her at the Royal Wedding, since the Changeling Queen had absorbed enough power from Shining Armor's love at that point. Though it should be noted, even with her massive power boost, Queen Chrysalis was visibly straining against Celestia's power and was as shocked as everypony else when she actually won, so Celestia didn't lose that easily.

In "Make New Friends but Keep Discord," after the Smooze splashes her and everypony in its slime, Celestia is unable to use her wings or her magic due to her wings being soaked with slime and having a small glob of the stuff covering up the tip of her horn, blocking her magic from getting out. Subverted that she was acting as discomforted and annoyed at Discord as everypony else, but was actually enjoying the chaos and mischief he and the Smooze were causing and was avoiding using her magic anyhow to avoid ruining the fun.

Her defeat is justified by Queen Chrysalis having gorged herself on an ungodly amount of love from Shining Armor and possibly Princess Cadance, and the fact that the room was packed full of her subjects (who she wouldn't want to harm) is important too. She had to avoid causing collateral damage. In fact, the Fiendship is Magic comic shows that hundreds of years ago, she fought Chrysalis and her army in Trot and defeated them.

In the Season 4 finale, Celestia mentions that the only reason she and Luna can't fight Tirek directly is because he has Discord backing him up.

You Kill It, You Bought It: The Season 2 premiere indicates she and Luna became Equestria's rulers after deposing the land's Evil Overlord, Discord, and turning him to stone. Proven in a flashback during the Season 4 premiere when Twilight saw them imprison Discord for the first time with the Elements of Harmony.

Princess Celestia's younger sister. She co-rules Equestria alongside her older sister. According to the Creation Myth, she used to govern nighttime, but grew jealous of her sister and wound up sealed away for a thousand years as the Mare in the Moon. After being defeated by the reformed Elements of Harmony, she Heel Face Turns and becomes Princess Luna again, resuming her nighttime duties.

0% Approval Rating: Princess Luna's bitterness turned her into Nightmare Moon because she thought that absolutely nobody liked her. Ironically, her actions as Nightmare Moon made sure that nobody liked her for real. The meteor shower scene in "Owl's Well and Ends Well" is a testament that ponies do enjoy her night and thus her fears were groundless. Interestingly, she agrees her Nightmare Moon self should be feared and hated. Word of God states that Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon was because of evil magic and may not have been entirely her fault or choice. It doesn't help that she has a bit of a temper. Confirmed in the second arc of the official comic book, with Luna's Nightmare Moon form being created by the Nightmare Forces, who proceed to do to Rarity what they did to Luna. Quite a few ponies are still scared of her in the present day due to a thousand years of rumors that built up around Nightmare Moon's "Nightmare Night", especially because of the fact she initially resurfaced as Nightmare Moon to begin with. She's working off her reputation. By "Sleepless in Ponyville", she'd succeeded as Scootaloo isn't scared of her and is instead happy to see her.

When she starts moving out of her old princess mode, Luna is macabre yet cute and a bit nerdy, much like a character escaped from a Tim Burton movie. Even in her old princess mode, she can be endearingly awkward, if loud.

Looking closely at the wedding reception near the end of "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2" shows her rocking out to the music in the background.

All There in the Manual: For those who follow the IDW comic series, Nightmare Moon's origins are expanded upon. We learn that her corruption wasn't entirely her fault, and that a dark entity known as the Nightmare Forces preyed on her contempt and loneliness, expanding it and turning her against her sister and citizens in order for her to become their Queen.

The Atoner: She tries to make amends for her stint as Nightmare Moon so her pony subjects won't be so frightened of her.

Her first attempt was on Nightmare Night which is probably not the best night to prove you're not scary, but still she's trying.

She decides to help Sweetie Belle through her relationship problems with Rarity, stating up front that she knows what it's like to feel outshone by her sister like Sweetie Belle does.

So great is her need to atone for her past, she created the Tantabus to torment her own dreams as a punishment for her time as Nightmare Moon.

Badass: As mentioned above, she took down Discord and King Sombra alongside Celestia years ago. It's also her job to patrol her subjects' dreams and deal with their nightmares. The first time she does this, she vaporizes the monster in it.

How she enters in "Luna Eclipsed". Descending from the high sky in a chariot drawn by drago-pegasi then leaping to the ground as her Black Cloak disperses into a flock of bats. It also qualifies as a Not What It Looks Like moment for her because it made everyone think Nightmare Moon was back.

Also makes one in "Sleepless in Ponyville", though this one is much more heroic; appear in a flash of light and zap a monster.

Broken Pedestal: Helped save Equestria from Discord and then maintain Harmony all over the land, only to later turn into a villain herself. After her Heel-Face Turn, she's trying to become a Rebuilt Pedestal after being this trope for a long time.note Intially the falling out of the royal sisters would be a big deal but after a few hundred years everypony thinks she's a myth.

Her brief initial appearance isn't much to go on, but definitely was not the Large Ham she showed up as later in "Luna Eclipsed".

Her appearance in "A Canterlot Wedding - Parts 1 & 2" shows that she's gotten much more used to speaking in what passes for a "normal" tone of voice among modern ponies, and she uses more modern lexicon as well.

Her speech in "Sleepless in Ponyville" is even better. Notably, it has become much like Celestia's, carrying all the weight and refinement you'd expect from a Princess, but no longer an intimidating shout-down to listen to. It's the best indicator that she's learning how to fit in, as when she first tried to speak in a "normal" voice, the result sounded frightened and unsure.

"Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep?" reveals that she still has a cripplingguilt complex over almost destroying Equestria as Nightmare Moon, and she specifically created the Tantabus to haunt her dreams and give her a recurring nightmare of being defeated as Nightmare Moon to eternally punish herself for said actions. In addition to this, her guilt leads to her inability to accept help from others regarding problems of her own making as she doesn't want any ponies to suffer for her sins like they did in the past. She finally comes to terms with the fact that who she is now is far removed from who she was when she became Nightmare Moon, and in doing so relieves herself of her guilt and absorbs the Tantabus into herself as a way of accepting who she was and is, and her end dream shows her peacefully sleeping away.

The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: There have been a few episodes where she helped a pony who had been having nightmares due to a psychological issue. It turns out that she had been going through the exact same kind of problem herself for a very long time. Though this is more a case of being unwilling to allow herself happy dreams than unable.

Cool Big Sis: If Celestia could be considered the mother of all Equestrian ponies, Luna is developing to be their Big Sister as we saw at the end of "Luna Eclipsed", helping Scootaloo in "Sleepless in Ponyville" and a similar role to Sweetie Belle in "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils".

Damsel in Distress: In the Season 4 premiere, she ends up being captured by Discord's plunder vines off-camera with her big sister, only to be saved by Twilight at the end of the two-parter. It happens again in the Season 4 finale, when she is imprisoned by the new villain with Celestia and Cadance.

Dark Is Evil: Out-of-universe, this trope is a key reason why she didn't show up again in Season 1. Strangely, Luna is even darker (color-wise) when she returns, so they apparently got over it.

Dark Is Not Evil: Despite riding a spiked chariot pulled by bat-winged guards into town, Luna just wishes for the acceptance of her subjects once again.

Depending on the Artist: As shown above, Luna has two designs; her usual design these days is her dark blue coat with ethereal mane, and then there's her light purple design with a normal mane. The second design is also considerably smaller than her other design. She took on the latter design upon her restoration in the series premiere, but when she showed up in Season 2 she was sporting her current design, and in the show has ever since. However, the comics inconsistently depict her in her original design without explanation. Flashbacks make this worse; a flashback to King Sombra's defeat has Luna in her larger form but the comics show her flying to the confrontation in her smaller form, and a flashback to her transformation into Nightmare Moon shows her with her larger form. Lauren Faust said Luna's smaller form upon her initial restoration was due to her low power levels, and she later recovered and took on her larger form as the show now depicted, but admits she made up the explanation on the spot and (at the time) didn't know how the current showrunners would explain it. So far, they haven't, and with how inconsistently her smaller form has been depicted, it's questionable if there's any explanation at all other than "the artists use whichever form they feel like using at the time."

Depending on the Writer: Despite the Characterization Marches On above her speech and some personalty traits change based on what writers feel is best suited. In the cartoon she has become a regal and wise pony like her sister (at least in important meetings and with young foals) and has become much better socially adjusted, while in the comics she's a Genki Girl with a short temper who's eager for adventure and still slips into Ye Olde Butchered English as a sort of Verbal Tic. The comics also go more in-depth on her jealousy of Celestia and her continuing to be haunted by her time as Nightmare Moon while the show more often depicts her using this to emphasize with other ponies who feel overshadowed (especially by their older sisters).

Desperately Craves Affection: Since she spent a thousand years as Equestria's Boogey Mare she works hard to earn her subjects' love and admiration once again, with little initial success.

Dramatic Thunder: A signature feature of hers. The weather reflects her mood, or more precisely, her anger and excitement.

Dream Walker: One of Luna's duties as the Princess of the Night is to check on her subjects' dreams and guard them from nightmares, as well as help them overcome them.

Dream Weaver: Luna can manipulate dreams on a whim, up to merging the memories of other ponies into the dream, and projecting possible futures to make a point. She is powerful enough to create a shared dream for all citizens of Ponyville at once, though it takes a lot out of her.

Fallen Heroine: Helped save Equestria from Discord before becoming so bitter (and corrupted by something) that she turned into Nightmare Moon and took over the villain role herself. Thankfully, she's back on the good side now.

Fish Out of Temporal Water: Part of the reason Luna is received so poorly on Nightmare Night; while it seems to everypony else that she's still acting evil, in reality she's presenting herself with outdated royal etiquette. This involves using No Indoor Voice, Royal "We" and Antiquated Linguistics. Given the occasion, it's not altogether clear how much of that behavior is the "real" Luna and how much just her hamming it up on purpose in order to fit in; either way, it helps drive home the point just how long she's been trapped in the moon.

Full-Name Basis: She always calls Twilight Sparkle by her full name. In the case of single-named, full-grown ponies, Luna goes around that limitation by calling them "Fair Applejack" and "Dear Fluttershy." She doesn't do it with Scootaloo, so maybe she's broken the habit by the third season.

Genki Girl: In the IDW comics issues 9 and 10, while completing in the games for the Summer Warp-Up she is very energetic and spirited as she looks forward to the events. Is this in her Micro Series comic as well.

Glowing Eyes of Doom: Brings these out occasionally when she's being theatrical or feeling frustrated.

Heavy Sleeper: Apparently slept straight through Queen Chrysalis' and the changelings' attempted takeover of Canterlot, explosions and all. How she managed that, we have no idea. On the other hand, she passed through the force field when relieving Celestia's watch duty so it's possible that she doesn't reside within Canterlot. This would explain how she doesn't know anything about modern customs in "Luna Eclipsed".

Heel-Face Turn: Once the Mane Six defeat Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony she turns back into Luna.

Hero with an F in Good: Luna really wants to be liked and redeem her image in the eyes of the common-folk, but she comes off as incredibly intimidating without trying. One thousand years of scary stories about her being a Chaotic Evil harbinger of doom, and then of being a cannibal predator that must be fooled with disguises and placated with tribute, is hard to live down. She's gotten better by "Sleepless in Ponyville" because Scootaloo is happy to see her.

Historical Villain Upgrade: In true events, she was turned into Nightmare Moon due to some outside influence and simply wanted to bring everlasting night. In legends, she turned evil out of resentment and ate ponies.

Large Ham: During "Luna Eclipsed" this can be attributed as part of the royal Canterlot tradition of speaking. She spent the episode learning to take the ham down a notch so she didn't scare people. This is taken further by the fact that she's far more assertive and liberal in her use of Royal-Winged-Unicorn-godpower than her sister. Thunder and lightning punctuate her sentences and she flies into the air when making her dramatic proclamations.

Modest Royalty: Much like her sister, she would rather have ponies just call her Luna and view her as just another pony.

My Greatest Failure: Whereas Celestia feels this way about being forced to banish her to the moon, Luna feels this way about becoming Nightmare Moon in the first place.

Nice Girl: Deep inside, she is very nice, but she comes off as intimidating at first.

Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Luna tries to be friendly; unfortunately, she has somewhat macabre tastes, is gothic and sinister in presence, and perpetually speaks in a booming echo of a voice. Nearly every pony is reduced to a trembling wreck before her. She's gotten better by "Sleepless in Ponyville", but still has some scary traits. Ironically, her job is to help ponies with their nightmares.

No Indoor Voice: PRINCESS LUNA TALKS LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME, because her (outdated) royal protocol says so. It takes her a while to realize she's scaring everypony to death before settling for a (much) softer, mellow voice, but she quickly REVERTS TO TALKING LIKE THIS WHEN SHE GETS UPSET, EXCITED, OR VERY HAPPY.

No Social Skills: Luna's obsession with (outdated) royal protocol and brutal lack of tact are extreme. This is mostly Played for Laughs, as she doesn't even know the meaning of the word "fun". Justified by the fact that the word "fun" is only about 300 years old in real life, meaning that the word could literally have not existed before she was banished. She seems to have improved during the Royal Canterlot Wedding two-parter and then got much better by Season 3. Although there's still the occasionally lapse into hamminess when speaking as the PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!

Not What It Looks Like: Everything she does in "Luna Eclipsed". She appears to be touting her old hammy evil routine, but she's really just out of touch with modern etiquette. Her Big Entrance is of particular note.

OC Stand-in: Between appearances, Luna was the show's most common pony in fanfiction, and mention of her hiding in her sister's shadow and cuddling with an abacus was treated as de facto interpretation. On the other hoof, a few of those fics gota fewdetailsright.

Perky Goth: Luna is now devoid of malice, but her personal tastes still look like something escaped from a horror movie, starting with her macabre royal chariot, her demonic-looking royal guards, and the idea that animating a group of giant, hairy spiders would be "fun" for everyone else. Ironically, it was realizing people liked being scared on Nightmare Night that let her win over her subjects.

Physical Goddess: Like her sister. "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep" reveals Princess Luna has enough power to draw all of Ponyville into a gigantic shared dreamby herself and still had enough power left over to do a few attacks on the Tantabus on top of maintaining that massive spell for an extended period.

Power Makes Your Hair Grow: In her "grown" form from "Luna Eclipsed", she has a significantly longer mane and tail than immediately after she was rescued from being Nightmare Moon. Power also makes your hair ethereal, it seems. Lauren Faust has suggested after the events of "Elements of Harmony", Luna's magical powers were completely exhausted. It was only after she was able to rest and recuperate that her magical mane returned.

Royal "We": Her manner of speech, because it's dictated by protocol. See No Indoor Voice. She Seems to have overcome it by "Canterlot Wedding" and "Sleepless in Ponyville" and she still sounds quite regal.

Royals Who Actually Do Something: In the penultimate episode of Season 4, when a frozen cloud threatens dozens of her and Celestia's citizens, she joins Celestia and the Pegasus ponies in trying to save them.

The Sacred Darkness: While Nightmare Moon is an example of the "corrupted" type of darkness, Luna is the "pure" type because she co-ruled alongside her sister. The Creation Myth shows the two of them in a yin-yang design.

Shadow Archetype: A literal one for Princess Celestia, who is beloved and adored by everyone, Princess Luna desires the same admiration yet has no idea how to obtain it which led to her inadvertently intimidating everyone initially.

Shock and Awe: De-corrupted, her magical beams take the form of lightning.

Took a Level in Badass: When she's not fresh off the Rainbow of Light and traumatized after a thousand years of exile, she's a capable leader of mares. She makes her entrance in "Sleepless in Ponyville" by vaporizing the monster in Scootaloo's nightmare.

True Blue Femininity: Everything about her appearance (mane, eyes, coat, hooves) are different shades of blue.

Tsundere: Her emotions and personality paint her as such when only the audience (and then Twilight) get to see how hurt she really feels.

The Unfavorite: How she thought the kingdom viewed her compared to her sister.

Vague Age: Even though she's an immortal moon goddess and only slightly younger than her adult sister, her true form's biological age is ambiguous. It's made even more confusing as of "Luna Eclipsed", where Luna's colors are slightly different and her mane flows like Celestia's, though Word of God has given an (on-the-spot) explanation as to how it could have happened. Word of Godsays that "Luna is not yet full grown."

Villain Decay: In-Universe. Nightmare Moon is a Mad God who tried twice to plunge the world into eternal night and presumably almost succeeded both times. "Luna Eclipsed" showed that the public perception of Nightmare Moon is that she's a cannibal who young ponies can placate with their candy. Justified by the fact the Nightmare Night is a tradition going back centuries before Luna's return.

Vocal Evolution: in "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils", Luna still has her regal voice during Sweetie Belle's dream, but she speaks much more plainly when she appears to Sweetie Belle later in Canterlot.

Voluntary Shapeshifting: She can assume her Nightmare Moon form at will, though whether it's a true transformation or just an illusion remains to be seen. Interestingly, despite these magical special effects, she still has to wear fake pointy teeth to replicate the appearance shown in Zecora's illusions. In the tie-in comics she's able to shift between her smaller and larger designs, though it's not clearly explained if it's involuntary and reliant on her power levels and/or self-confidence, or if Luna changed between the two at will given her confidence problems.

Woman Child : Certainly in the comics, and consistent with most of her appearances in the show too, Luna is mercurial in her moods and frequently petulant and given to sulks and bursts of rage. Her immaturity in comparison to her sister is very obvious.

The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: Of a different variety to her sis. Whereas Celestia's mask is that of an enlightenment monarch (late renaissance/early modern period), Luna's is that of Dark Ages/Medieval royalty. It's implied that a grandiose and intimidating demeanor was necessary because Equestria used to be a much more savage and inhospitable place and the sisters didn't have the centuries of tradition and religious reverence that they have now. Luna's mask was at odds with her kindly and fun-loving nature.

Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Averted. She uses "thou", "thee", and "thy" only when addressing single ponies and "you" and "your" when speaking to multiple ponies. Also, when speaking to single ponies, she attaches the "-est" suffix only to verbs where the listener is the subject.

You Were Trying Too Hard: She ends up coming off as far more forceful and intimidating than she realizes partly due to this. Once Twilight helps calm her down and make everyone more relaxed around Luna, things go much better.

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, better known as Princess Cadance, is a pretty pearl pink princess pony and adopted niece of Princess Celestia (and probably Luna's). She had been acquainted with Twilight Sparkle, as she was her foal-sitter when she was really small. It was also back then that she met the colt who would eventually become her husband, Shining Armor. Her main talent appears to be bringing love to others. However, she had not been acting as herself in the days coming up to her wedding...

Like Twilight Sparkle, she was not born as an alicorn. She was a pegasus raised by earth ponies until she reversed a love-stealing spell and was adopted by Celestia as her niece.

Accidental Pun: Her full name is Italian, and since "alicorn" became the official term for the kind of pony she is, she could be called an Italicorn.

Action Girl: Surprisingly so, given that she's something of a love goddess. She actually finds running the Crystal Empire boring enough that she considers fighting a huge land wurm to be a nice break from the tedium.

Badass in Distress: Only in her debut appearance. Surprisingly, she's this trope less often than her more powerful aunts.

Badass Princess: She vanquishes Chrysalis' brainwashed bridesmaids, dispels Chrysalis' brainwashing spell on Shining Armor, and together with him, banishes the evil Queen and all of her changeling swarms far away from Equestria with a powerful magic blast.

She's popularly believed to be the roller derby pony Shining Harmer from the Friends Forever comics, thanks to that name and having a similar design. The issue's artist has been deliberately vague about it.

Barrier Warrior: She copies Shining Armor from the wedding by projecting a protective field of love around the Crystal Empire to keep King Sombra at bay. Unlike Shining Armor, it takes constant effort for her to maintain the spell, resulting in sleep-deprivation. It comes up again in "Three's a Crowd" when she uses a health bubble to keep herself and Twilight from catching Discord's "blue flu". At the end of the episode, it proves strong enough to withstand a Tatzlwurm sneeze, which was so potent that even Discord got sick from it.

Bridezilla: Everyone assumed this is why she was so unpleasant before the wedding. However, it was Queen Chrysalis disguised as Cadance. The real Cadance averts this.

Childhood Marriage Promise: Her lyrics in the "This Day Aria" suggests that she wanted to marry Shining Armor since she was a filly.

Color-Coded Wizardry: Her magic aura is a bright cyan, the same color as the heart in her cutie mark. This is an early indicator that the first Cadance is an imposter is that her magical aura is green.

Cool Big Sis: Was this to Twilight when she was a filly and Cadance was her foalsitter. Twilight says she is "greatest foal sitter in the history of foalsitters". She returns to being this when they're reunited, doubly so once she becomes Twilight's sister-in-law.

Damsel in Distress: Queen Chrysalis imprisons her under Canterlot until she's rescued by Twilight Sparkle. However, once freed, she shows she can handle herself pretty damn well. She also ends up in this position again when imprisoned by the new villain in the Season 4 finale, Twilight's Kingdom, along with the Royal Sisters.

Dark Secret: Subverted in that the real Cadance doesn't have one, her impostor does.

Foil: To Chrysalis; it's most apparent in their duet, "This Day Aria" which uses contrasting lyrics.

Gemstone Assault: As "Princess Spike" revealed, she has the ability to conjure up magical crystals.

Hair Decorations: She tied her mane and tail back with blue ribbons as a teenager, and her mane is decorated and styled elaborately with crystals into a ceremonial headdress for the Equestrian Games.

Happily Married: To Shining Armor. Her lyrics in "This Day Aria" includes lines such as "loving and cherishing him each day". In every apperance after her wedding, she's doing just that.

Heart Beat-Down / The Power of Love: This is her form of magic; renewing love in others, creating love powered force fields, breaking mind control with hearts etc. She even has a heart-shaped jewel as her cutie mark.

Lonely at the Top: Averted. Although an alicorn, Cadance seems to identify much more closely with normal ponies than she does her fellow rulers: In "Games Ponies Play", she refers to the Mane Six as "my girls", and in Equestria Girls she can be seen waiting for Twilight alongside them, instead of with Luna and Celestia.

Lovable Nerd: You wouldn't think so at first glance, but it comes out sometimes when she's around Twilight. The first time she babysat Twilight (according to the comics), she brought a label maker, an abacus, and academy-ruled paper and they spent the entire night making comparative charts and graphs to determine her compatibility with Shining Armor. And in "Three's a Crowd" she seemed just as interested in the Star Swirl the Bearded exhibit as Twilight was.

Nice Girl: Very much so. She even takes the news that Discord's faking his illness and interrupted her day with Twilight with a grain of salt.

Nice to the Waiter: She is genuinely appreciative of anypony and considers nopony beneath her. In her younger days she was a foalsitter to Twilight and others and apparently enjoyed the job.

Nightmare Fetishist: A mild example. In "Three's a Crowd" she notes that ruling the Crystal Empire is actually kinda boring and that she enjoyed traveling to the edge of Equestria and fighting a giant worm because it gave her something fun to do.

Pink Means Feminine: In contrast to her cosmic aunts, her magic revolves around love and marries in her introduction.

Physical Goddess: She's powerful enough to put up a protective field of love around the city of the Crystal Empire and strong enough to keep King Sombra at bay even when heavily fatigued from sleep deprivation. In addition, her power, combined with her aunts and Princess Twilight's, was enough to match Tirek when he was powered up by the combined magic of all of Equestria plus Discord.

She puts a field of love around the Crystal Empire to keep out King Sombra.

She even takes time out of her duties to the Empire to spend quality time with her sister-in-law, even if that quality time was spent helping Discord...

Secret Handshake: Or Secret Hoofshake as the case may be. The Sunshine rhyme With Twilight Sparkle.

Silk Hiding Steel: Just like her aunts, she's normally extremely kind and even foalsat when she was younger, but she is more than willing to use force to protect those in her care. Chrysalis and King Sombra both found this out the hard way. So did the land wurm when it tried to harm Twilight.

Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Her marriage to Shining Armor certainly counts; if Twilight's adoration of him is any indication, he's always been a terrific guy.

Spoiled Sweet: Implied. Even though Cadance is a princess, she still foal-sat Twilight Sparkle and thoroughly enjoyed it. Twilight has very fond memories of her, which is why her cold, superior attitude upon meeting her again immediately sets off some alarm bells in her head. She's right — that Cadance is not the real one, but a Changeling imposter. This is made more evident in "Games Ponies Play", where upon receiving the news that her personal mane stylist is out sick and can't come in to style Cadance's mane into the ceremonial headdress, Cadance's first thought is hoping that she's better soon.

Stealth Pun: Celestia looks after the day, Luna looks after the night, and Cadance looked after Twilight (Sparkle).

Unkempt Beauty: Despite being locked and dirtied in a cave for Celestia-doesn't-know how long, she's still quite the stunner when she is found.

Unmoving Plaid: When she performs a Power of Love-fueled spell with Shining Armor, her mane begins to flow just like Celestia's for a short time, only to settle back into a solid form when it's all done. That sort of flowing mane might be an indication of power among Winged Unicorns.

Victory Is Boring: In "Three's a Crowd", she admits to Twilight that she's a little bored with her safe life as the Crystal Princess (she's even fallen out of practice flying even more notable since she was originally a pegasus). It seems she's developed a taste for adventure.

White Mage: Cadance removed Chrysalis' brainwashing from Shining Armor, restored his vitality, and then boosted the power of his shield spell, all of which are hallmarks of the White Mage archetype. Can also create a "Magic Health Bubble" that prevents illness to anypony inside. Also, her offensive abilities are nothing to sneeze at.

Justified. Being in an underground cave, her wings aren't much use and are kept tucked in close to her sides while escape attempts are made but when she and Twilight aren't going to make a long jump, they finally come out in full force.

Even more awesomely used in "The Crystal Empire - Part 2"; Cadance is both mentally and physically exhausted from maintaining the shield around the Crystal Empire to where Shining Armor has to support her to stand up. King Sombra is racing towards the center castle, and Spike, entrusted to the Crystal Heart by Twilight, has just fallen off from a high altitude. Shining Armor tosses his wife towards Spike, snagging the dragon and the Crystal Heart from Sombra's reach, and then glides herself safely down to activate the Heart in time.

Woman in White: Justified, as it is her wedding day in her debut episode.

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